Where psychology and YA literature/media meet. Collide. Meld. Fight to the death. Snuggle.

Thursday, October 2, 2014

It's the YA Scavenger Hunt!

Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! I'm Sarah Fine, the author of OF METAL AND WISHES:

If you're new to the game, go here for instructions on how to hunt--and WIN. And, after you've gotten your info and read the fabulous exclusive content I've got below, please stay and enter to win a KINDLE PAPERWHITE loaded up with some of my other work--all the books and novellas in the Guards of the Shadowlands series!

THE HUNT

This bi-annual event was first
organized by author Colleen Houck as
a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from
their favorite authors...and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt,
you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a
clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize--one lucky
winner will receive one signed book from each author on the hunt in my
team!But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus
material) will only be online for 72 hours!

Go to
the YA Scavenger Huntpage
to find out all about the hunt. There are SIX contests
going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the GOLD TEAM--but
there is also a red team, a blue team, an orange team, a green team, and an
indie team for a chance to win a whole different set of signed books!

If you'd like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors
participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA
Scavenger Hunt page.

SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE

Directions: Below,
you'll notice that I've listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite
numbers of all the authors on the gold team, and
then add them up (don't worry, you can use a calculator!).

Rules: Open
internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian's
permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the
completed entry form by OCTOBER 5TH, at
noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact
information will not be considered.

SCAVENGER HUNT POST

I am so excited today to be hosting Rachel Carter, author of FIND ME WHERE THE WATER ENDS, book three in the So Close to You series. You can get your own copy of Find Me Where the Water Ends right here! Rachel grew up surrounded by trees and snow and mountains. She is a graduate of the University of Vermont and Columbia University, where she received her MFA in nonfiction writing. She is the author of the So Close to You series with Harperteen. These days you can find her working on her next novel in the woods of Vermont. VERMONT, you guys. I'm pretty sure they get at least 26 feet of snow a year up there.

EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

Lydia has been trained into a person she might have once feared: focused, fierce, deadly. Although she never wanted the life of a Montauk Project recruit, the Project has captured someone she loves-someone she'll do anything to save.

Then Lydia glimpses a world in which the Montauk Project never existed. The Project has taken so much from Lydia already, but she knows that she will sacrifice everything to make her vision of a world without the Project a reality.

Publishers Weekly said that "readers will be hooked" by Rachel Carter's plot-twisting So Close to You series. The conspiracy theories, romance, and compelling "what if?" questions build to a satisfying series end, making Find Me Where the Water Ends the perfect fit for the teen fans of light science fiction like The Time Traveler's Wife.

In a very, very early draft of Find Me Where
the Water Ends, Lydia and Wes trained together before they went on their
mission to 2049. This is a deleted scene from that alternative storyline, where
Lydia and Wes spar for the first time.

“Seventeen, you’ll fight Eleven.”

I feel my body jerk. “Excuse me?”

“You two haven’t fought yet; since
he’s physically stronger than you and better trained we’ve been waiting until
we thought you were ready. But we don’t have the luxury of waiting anymore.”
Twenty-two states this in the clinical, matter-of-fact way she has of speaking,
but I don’t miss her use of the word we. As
if they are one unit. As if they are facing down an enemy together.

“Fine.” I narrow my eyes at Wes.
“I’m ready.”

“You’re not, but we don’t have time
left to wait,” Twenty-two says calmly. “Let’s get this over with.”

I glare at her, searching for patience.

But then Wes is there, right in
front of me. He keeps his eyes on mine as he starts to circle. I spin with him.
He moves his body with complete control, complete ease. His arms are loose
against his side and as much as I fight it, I can’t help but remember how they
felt curled around me that night we slept wrapped together on an old, run-down
couch in Tag’s East Village squat. The couch smelled like mildew, and springs
were poking into my side through the holes in the worn fabric. But it was the
night we decided to run away to the 1920s together, a time where the Montauk
Project couldn’t find us, and it was the best night of sleep I’ve ever had.

Now the person I thought I would
spend the rest of my life with is getting ready to throw me to the ground. Wes
is staring at my face, but I keep my eyes glued to his body, to the way he
shifts his weight back and forth. From watching him fight Twenty-two and Tim, I
know that he relies on his speed and agility over strength. If I have any hope
of beating him, I need to anticipate what he’s going to do before he does it.

Unfortunately, I’ve never been good
at predicting Wes’ next moves. He feints to the right, and I shift with him,
ready to block, but then he quickly comes at me from the left, his arms closing
around mine. I twist out of his hold, and use the momentum to aim a side snap
kick at his face. But he easily blocks it, and again closes his arms around me.
He is trying to restrain, not attack, I realize. This was not the way he fought
Tim or Twenty-two.

Fine. If he’s not going to take me
as a threat, then I’m busting out the Krav Maga. I grab the hand that’s wrapped
around my stomach and use it as leverage to swing my body to the left, hard
enough to break Wes’ hold and twist myself around and onto his back. I lock my
legs around his waist, and put him into a chokehold. Our heads are close
together, and for the first time in nine months I can smell him. Pine needles, the forest, a heavy rain. It is achingly
familiar. I have no idea how he smells like that when we’re all using the same
soap, but I suck in my breath anyway. Wes hears it and freezes. We stay locked
like that, me hanging on him, his head tilting back against mine. Our mouths
are inches apart. If he turned his head…but then his hands come up and grab my
calves. I tense, gripping his neck harder. He suddenly drops to his knees, and
uses the force of the movement to flip me over his head. I close my eyes at the
sensation of flying through the air, but then feel his hand hard against my
back. Instead of slamming into the mat, I’m eased down onto it.

“He’s holding back,” I hear Tim say.
And he’s right, Wes is holding back, though I can’t imagine why. If he didn’t
want to hurt me, then he wouldn’t have betrayed me in the first place.

I spare a glance to the side of the
mat. Tim is watching us closely, Twenty-two is frowning at Wes, her eyebrows
raised, like she’s surprised, or maybe realizing something for the first time.

Wes twists around, so quickly that I
do not have time to get up, and then he’s there, on top of me. His legs are
straddling mine, his hands pinning my arms down onto the mat. I stare up at
him, breathing hard. We lock eyes. His are dark, so dark they look black in
this harsh gym light. His lashes are long, almost girlishly so, but the bump in
the bridge of his nose prevents him from looking too pretty. He is staring at
me just as intensely, scanning my face, my green eyes, my too-full lips. I
can’t read his expression, though it reminds me of how he used to look at me,
open, searching, as if I’m some kind of mystery he’s trying to solve. He is
breathing heavily, I realize, and our panting chests are moving in unison, almost
touching over and over.

“Aren’t you going to fight?” I hear
whispered. “Are you just going to let him win like that?” It is Tim’s voice,
though it could have been coming from inside of me.

No. I’m not going to let him win. I’m not going to be vulnerable like
this again. I heave my body to the side, trying to shove Wes off of me. But he
clings, his grip on my hands getting tighter. I manage to turn to my front, but
now he is just sitting on my back, my arms twisted above my head. I can barely
move, though still I fight against him, trying to gain leverage, to push him
off of me. He leans down. “You’re done,” he says into my ear. “It’s over.”

“No.” I grunt the word, and struggle harder. Sweat beads at my temples,
dripping down onto the mat below me. There is a ringing in my ears that’s
getting louder, but I refuse to give up.

Wes moves my arms up farther, and bends down. He is practically lying on
top of me. “Be still,” he whispers.

His voice just makes me want to fight more. I pull at the hands holding
me down. “Be still,” he repeats, his voice a growl. “Lydia.” He breathes the
word into my hair. “Be. Still.”

It is my name that does it. I have not heard it in so long, and suddenly
my body is like water, the tension flowing out of me in a stream. I am motionless
under Wes. He feels me surrender, I know he does, but he still doesn’t move,
his body pressing mine into the mat. “Lydia,” I hear him whisper again, or
maybe I just imagine it; the word is so soft I can’t even feel his breath
against my neck.

“Seventeen, are you okay?” I cannot lift my head, but I see Tim’s bare
feet move into my eye-line. His voice grows colder. “Get off of her, it’s
over.”

Wes hesitates, then slowly gets up. I breathe easier as soon as his
weight is off me, though the air in the gym suddenly feels colder. I roll into
a sitting position and wipe the sweat from my eyes. Wes has his back to me and
I see the sharp rise and fall of his shoulders as he takes a deep breath.

WHEW. Intense, right?? Thank you, Rachel! Don't forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of signed books by me, Rachel Carter, and more! To enter, remember that my favorite number is 26. Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the gold team and you'll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!

CONTINUE THE HUNT

To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next author--TERI HARMAN! But here's a treat for you before you go--enter to win a Kindle Paperwhite:

I'm a veteran hunter. I have been joining since YASH started! Back then, there were only few teams. Now, there are a lot! (YAAAAY for more books!) Thanks for the awesome giveaway you have! Much love! x

i've joined this giveaway bf and this is the 4 times and i really love it and have win a great book from great author, really appreciate it especially with their kind heart and great book and because this event i have know so many author :)

I'm a veteran. Been here from the start. It's the reason I have a twitter, wordpress and several other accounts! LOL. I remember when it was only 2 teams and it was letters we had to find and then take those letters to decode a special sentence, and if the sentence you entered was wrong your entry didn't count!!

I've been hunting for several years, I can't believe how many teams and authors there are this year...holy crap this is awesome...it better not get so big I don't have enough time to do them all though - that would be sad.

I am loving the YASH, I think it's so cool. This is my first time playing and I have found a ton of new authors and books I didn't know about. I will definitely be participating every time from now one. So fun!!

I am new to the hunt. I wasn't even going to do it but an author friend posted it and I was like okay I'll try it. I didn't understand it when I first looked into it. But now I'm like... gosh I feel dumb, lol. Thank you for being a part of the hunt!

About Me

I'm a child psychologist with an unapologetically empirical orientation. I'm also an author who writes unapologetically fantastical YA fiction. In that venture, I am repped by Kathleen Ortiz of New Leaf Literary and Media. SANCTUM and FRACTURED, the first two books in my YA urban fantasy series, GUARDS OF THE SHADOWLANDS, are available now (Skyscape/Amazon Children's Publishing). Book 3 in the series comes out 10/14. My co-authored (with Walter Jury) YA thriller, SCAN, comes out in 5/1/14 (Putnam & Sons/Penguin). OF METAL AND WISHES, my gothic YA, comes out in 8/5/14 (McElderry/Simon & Schuster). I also write adult paranormal romance for 47 North/Amazon. I like to stay busy.